To my surprise Foreign Policy refused to publish an article by the official Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid, responding to an article that appeared in the magazine on 2 July under the title, “Lessons for the Next Arab Spring.” The article, which was written by a fellow at the Brookings Institution called Shadi Hamid, fumes against the 30 June 2013 Revolution and calls on the US to intervene immediately should a similar event occur again. Surely Egypt has a right to respond to an article of this nature to rectify mistakes and misinformation. However, the magazine wrote back with an apology saying that it would not publish Ambassador Abu Zeid’s article. This is odd coming from one of the two best known foreign affairs periodicals in the US, cofounded in 1970 by the political scientist, Samuel Huntington, who gained worldwide notoriety for his “clash of civilisations” theory.

The other magazine is the longer established Foreign Affairs, founded in 1922. Although it is a quarterly periodical, it publishes articles daily on its online website. It too refused to publish the Egyptian response to the article by the Brookings Institute fellow. Therefore, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry published its official spokesperson’s article on its official blogsite. It opens: “As we, Egyptians, commemorate the 10th anniversary of the June 30th Revolution this year, we hail a landmark moment in our modern history. It was an epic moment, demonstrating massive popular will across all segments of the Egyptian society.” It proceeds to narrate, from an Egyptian perspective, the events that took place between 30 June and 3 July 2013, which is to say, the revolution that the Foreign Policy article held that the US should have stepped in to stop or impose sanctions on Egypt immediately afterwards. Ambassador Abu Zeid explains how the events that unfolded after the 30 June Revolution have “only proven the merit of all the underlying causes which constituted its very essence.” He also discusses the progress Egypt has made since then to bring a better and dignified life to all Egyptians.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 3 August, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly